Hi everyone! Today I want to talk about something that comes to my mind every now and then and something that affects all our lives. That point is our fast lives and how it affects our memories. Let’s start.
In modern life, things are too fast. Something happens all the time everyone’s lives and we learn about everything about what happens in other people’s lives very fast. This has several consequences. One is that we forget ourselves. The second is that we forget everything. So, we forget.
The reason that I started thinking about this is because someone once told me how strong people’s memories were before as compared to today. They could memorize pages and pages and recite all. I even heard people memorizing many books. In fact, even I used to memorize things when I was a kid. I used to recite many things from my head in front of many people by heart. Now, I cannot do it as easily. Part of it is that I became an adult so my brain is possibly slower in processing stuff. But the bigger part is that it is occupied by too many things.
When I was a kid, I always was able to focus on that piece I was memorizing so I could do it well. Now, when I need to do such a thing, I think more like ‘I need to get this out of the way so I can do x, y, z’. Plus, I think of how I will look if I don’t do well. So, when I am trying to memorize or understand, in fact my mind is busy with many other things.
Humans probably always have this tendency to think about multiple things at the same time because we are not satisfied with things. But modern life style has increased the number of things that we (need to) think about greatly. For example, as a researcher, I not only have to think about my research, but also my classes as a student, my teaching in addition to the must-have my family and friends and also many other more trivial stuff that happens everyday. In the ideal situation, a person should have one task, say research, and that is it. But we not only have these many tasks, but we also have the additional stress factors that did not exist before, at least not to this extent. If we try to keep up with everything that is going on, we will definitely be lost. Our mind will just lose its balance in the midst of all that chaos. It will be occupied with things it should not be.
What can we do to help gain our good, strong memories back? I think the solution is to slow things down. That way, our minds will be able to focus again. One way to do this is to allow ourselves time to calm our minds via meditation, nature walks etc. That is, making it a daily habit to take things slow. Another way is to make some sacrifices and take some things out of our lives. We don’t have to do everything. We can’t do everything. But we realize this fact only when we start not doing some things. My curious nature was making me try to investigate every linguistic point I found interesting. Well, when I started not doing that, I noticed that I actually did not have to research everything in the first place. I was just trying to do what was beyond me.
So now, I try to take things slower. Now I know that I don’t have to catch up with everything. Nor do I have to do or have everything. I hope that this will help improve my memory.
Do you think our memories are weaker now compared to previous generations? Do you think it is related to the pace of life? Any other solutions to strengthen our memories? Let’s chat.